The complicated relationship between me and sugar

Okay, so it’s not really complicated, it’s quite straightforward. I love sugar. My bum does not.

Since I got back on SparkPeople.com I’ve been watching my carb and sugar intake more. I’m not depriving myself, but I’m trying to stay near the low end of the range that SparkPeople has given to me.

One thing I’m really striving to do is be more mindful of my food as I eat it, taking the time to taste and enjoy my food as described in the book French Women Don’t Get Fat, and that has made my carb intake very deliberate. When I eat a biscuit with my tea, I’m taking the time to taste it and enjoy it more.

What I’ve discovered is that I’ve been eating less carbs and not really noticing the change in my diet or feeling deprived. Instead of eating 2-3 biscuits with tea, I eat one or maybe one and a half, slowly in smaller pieces, enjoying the taste as I eat it, and I honestly don’t feel disgruntled at all that it’s less than I typically ate only 3 weeks ago.

One thing I did last night that surprised me:

I got a new cookie, Cinnamon Sugar Spice made by LU Biscuits, and while it’s good, it’s much sweeter than the McVitie’s Rich Tea biscuits and Digestive biscuits I’ve been eating with my tea. So instead of adding honey to my tea like I usually do, I drank my tea without sweetener and ate my cinnamon cookie. The extra sweetness of the cookie made up for the lack of honey in the tea and I was perfectly happy about it.

I think that a few weeks ago, I would have added honey to my tea and eaten the cinnamon cookie, and I wouldn’t have thought that the combo was too sweet. But now that I’ve been decreasing my carb intake each day and being more mindful of what I’m eating as I eat it, I was able to adjust my teatime snack because I could tell that the extra sugar was too much.

I know this might sound kind of stupid, but I really feel proud of myself for doing the adjustment. I don’t know if this will help anyone else trying to eat healthily, but I’m going to continue to try to monitor what I’m eating so I can make these small adjustments and learn to eat healthier. Every little bit counts, right?

Comments

Helen Bratko said…

Good for you! I've learned some of the same lessons about enjoying food and cutting down on sugar. I actually have gone off refined sugar. It's hard, but I feel better. Keep it up, girl!

Mon May 07, 04:49:00 PM 2012

Camy Tang said…

Thanks Helen!

Mon May 07, 05:02:00 PM 2012

Brainstorm - character occupation

Captain's Log, Stardate 03.23.2009 Hey guys, I could use some help. In my current manuscript, The Year of the Dog , which is a humorous contemporary romance, I have a minor character, Eddie. He’s my heroine’s ex-boyfriend, and they’re on good terms with each other. He’s a bit irresponsible, but not so much so that he’s a complete loser. He’s got a very easy going attitude, he forgets to pay his bills sometimes, he’s friendly and charming. He’s adventurous and fun to be around, but he’s a little forgetful sometimes, and he tends to spend a little outside his income. I need an occupation for him. What would a charming, easy going, slightly irresponsible guy do for a living? He’s not too irresponsible, because otherwise readers will wonder what in the world my heroine saw in him to date him in the first place. She was attracted to his charm, his easy going attitude (her family’s uptight, and he was a nice contrast), and his adventurousness. But his forgetfulness and irresponsibility ...

Lavender hand lotion

Captain's Log, Stardate 11.05.2009 I have to tell you, I LOVE Etsy.com ! Etsy is dedicated to providing a marketplace for people who like to make handmade products and people who appreciate them (and buy them). It has everything from handmade gifts (like my mom’s Bucilla Christmas stockings and ornaments and tree skirts and wall hangings and … well, just click here to see what she has! ) to soaps and lotions and jewelry and knitted items and hand-painted yarn and ... I could surf that website for DAYS. Anyway, lately I’ve been concerned about the lead content in my lotions, especially since I’m using them more now that it’s turned colder and drier here in California. I have to use lotion on my hands everytime after I wash them. So I went onto Etsy and searched for organic hand lotions, and bought this lavender lotion from Lue Cosmetics . What was really nice is that the owner, Jane, sent me a direct message via Etsy right after I made the purchase to ask if I’d received it yet and ...

Chinese Take-Out and Sushi for One

Captain’s Log, Supplemental My agent sent me an article from Publisher’s Weekly that discussed this incident: Chinese Take-Out Spawns Christian Controversy And here’s also a blog post that talks about it in more detail: The Fighting 44s This is Soong-Chan Rah’s blog: The PCS blog In sum: Apparently Zondervan (yes, my publisher), who has partnered with Youth Specialties, had put out a youth leaders skit that had stereotypical Asian dialogue, which offended many Christian Asian Americans. In response to the outcry, Zondervan/Youth Specialities put out a sincere apology and is not only freezing the remaining stock of the book, but also reprinting it and replacing the copies people have already bought. I am very proud of my publisher for how they have handled this situation. The skit writers have also issued a public apology . (I feel sorry for them, because they were only trying to write a funny skit, not stir up this maelstrom of internet controversy. I’ve been in youth work long enou...

Tabi socks, part deux

Captain's Log, Stardate 07.25.2008 (If you're on Ravelry, friend me! I'm camytang.) I made tabi socks again! (At the bottom of the pattern is the calculation for the toe split if you're not using the same weight yarn that I did for this pattern (fingering). I also give an example from when I used worsted weight yarn with this pattern.) I used Opal yarn, Petticoat colorway. It’s a finer yarn than my last pair of tabi socks, so I altered the pattern a bit. Okay, so here’s my first foray into giving a knitting pattern. Camy’s top-down Tabi Socks I’m assuming you already know the basics of knitting socks. If you’re a beginner, here are some great tutorials: Socks 101 How to Knit Socks The Sock Knitter’s Companion A video of turning the heel Sock Knitting Tips Yarn: I have used both fingering weight and worsted weight yarn with this pattern. You just change the number of cast on stitches according to your gauge and the circumference of your ankle. Th...

Grace Livingston Hill romances free to read online

I wanted to update my old post on Grace Livingston Hill romances because now there are tons more options for you to be able to read her books for free online! I’m a huge Grace Livingston Hill fan. Granted, not all her books resonate with me, but there are a few that I absolutely love, like The Enchanted Barn and Crimson Roses . And the best part is that she wrote over 100 books and I haven’t yet read them all! When I have time, I like to dive into a new GLH novel. I like the fact that most of them are romances, and I especially appreciate that they all have strong Christian themes. Occasionally the Christian content is a little heavy-handed for my taste, but it’s so interesting to see what the Christian faith was like in the early part of the 20th century. These books are often Cinderella-type stories or A Little Princess (Frances Hodgson Burnett) type stories, which I love. And the best part is that they’re all set in the early 1900s, so the time period is absolutely fasci...

Search This Blog